Caribbean Studies Minor
Introduction
The site of Columbus’s first landing and the hemisphere’s first Iberian settlement, what we now call the Caribbean is temporally, geographically, and historically at the center of the Americas. Home to such indigenous peoples as the Arawaks and the Caribs, the region was colonized by Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United States. Populated by labor streams from Africa and Asia, as well by people from Europe and the Middle East, the Caribbean has extraordinary diversity in its people, languages, and cultural histories. It is a microcosm of contemporary global problematics: immigrant, indigenous, settler, and diasporic communities negotiating their status as nations and polities, while preserving individual pasts and identities.
The Interdisciplinary Caribbean Studies Minor at Wesleyan focuses upon aspects of this region. It draws upon faculty and curricula from many departments and programs: African American Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, The College of Letters, English, Latin American Studies, Religious Studies, Music, and Romance Languages (French), among others. It is by its diverse nature constituted as always multidisciplinary.
The Caribbean Studies Minor is an interdisciplinary minor, administered by the Co-Coordinators: Indira Karamcheti, ikaramcheti@wesleyan.edu, and Zaira Simone-Thompson, zsimone@wesleyan.edu
Minor Requirements
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The Caribbean Studies Minor consists of five credits.
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AMST 200, Colonialism and Its Consequences, is required as a foundation course for the Minor.
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The four additional courses may be drawn from courses that fall within the category of Caribbean Studies. While a specific distribution of the four electives across disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields is not required, no more than three courses in a single disciplinary field may be counted for the Minor.
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All courses counted for the Minor should be 200-level and above.
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While there is no general GPA requirement to declare the Minor, a grade of B or better is required for courses counted for the Minor.
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Students who study abroad are allowed to count up to two courses for the Minor so long as the courses are focused on the Caribbean. To be counted for the Minor, study-abroad courses have to be approved in advance by the Coordinator for the Caribbean Studies Minor.
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2023-2024 Courses
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| AMST200 | Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas | 1 |
| AMST273 | South Asian Literature in the American Diasporas | 1 |
| AMST247 | Caribbean Writers in the U.S. Diaspora | 1 |
| GOVT302 | Latin American Politics | 1 |
| HIST296 | Colonial Latin America | 1 |
| HIST245 | Modern Latin America Since 1810 | 1 |
| SPAN270 | Survey of Latin American Literatures, Cultures, and Ideas | 1 |
| SPAN284 | Tales of Resistance: Modernity and the Latin American Short Story | 1 |
| SPAN285 | Asian Latino Encounters | 1 |
2022-2023 Courses
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| AFAM203 | African American History, 1444-1877 | 1 |
| AMST200 | Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas | 1 |
| RELI279 | Christianity and Globalization | 1 |
| SPAN291 | Spanish American 'Modernismo' in a Global Context | 1 |
| AMST225 | Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies | 1 |
| AMST273 | South Asian Literature in the American Diasporas | 1 |
| COL225 | 20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity | 1 |
| SPAN270 | Survey of Latin American Literatures, Cultures, and Ideas | 1 |
| SPAN284 | Tales of Resistance: Modernity and the Latin American Short Story | 1 |